A room full of guns turned in through the gun amnesty program. Photo by Manfred Joehnck.

The Regina Police Service Gun Amnesty Program exceeded all expectations, with 157 guns turned in to the department over the past two weeks.

Police Chief Evan Bray says it allowed people to turn the guns in without fear of getting into trouble.

He says gun crimes are a large and growing problem, and having fewer guns in homes gives criminals fewer guns to steal.

“This is hopefully preventing more and heading off future problems,” he said.

“We have a firearms problem in our community.  It is very rare that we go through a night where we don’t have an incident where a firearms is not somehow mentioned, used, or found in a vehicle or a home.”

The number of gun crimes in Regina over the last year is up 94 per cent from the five-year average, and the number of guns stolen last year was 55, which up 175 per cent from 2015.

Last year, 30 people suffered gunshot wounds in Regina, up 173 per cent from 2015.

Inspector Lorilee Davies was in charge of the amnesty program, and says people who took part in the program were just glad to get rid of the weapons.

“There was a large amount of anxiety for people knowing they had these firearms and didn’t know what to do with them, “she said.

“There was a great relief that we were there and we could take them off their hands.”

This was the first gun amnesty program in the province. The guns turned in included 25 restricted or prohibited weapons and four rare guns that will be turned over to a museum.

The rest of the guns will be melted down.